


in the city of your heart

by annperkinsface



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 08:33:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16281167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annperkinsface/pseuds/annperkinsface
Summary: In the depths of Ventus' heart Vanitas' lip curls. Darkness on all sides and stained glass under his feet and someone standing in the middle of the platform, holding two Keyblades at the ready, hood pushed back to stare balefully at Vanitas. Sora's eyes and Ventus' face. His face. His, his, his, not this imposter's or Vanitas' shadow mockery of Sora's.





	in the city of your heart

"You don't belong here."

In the depths of Ventus' heart Vanitas' lip curls. Darkness on all sides and stained glass under his feet and someone standing in the middle of the platform, holding two Keyblades at the ready, hood pushed back to stare balefully at Vanitas. Sora's eyes and Ventus' face. His face. His, his, his, not this imposter's or Vanitas' shadow mockery of Sora's. Bile rises to Vanitas' throat. He sneers, Void Gear materializing into his hand. "That's funny," Vanitas says, gesturing at Roxas almost lazily, but his eyes are cold and his body is coiled like a snake. "Because it looks to me like  _you're_  the one that doesn't belong. I have more of a right to be here than you."

"Not like this," Roxas says, white knuckling Oathkeeper and Oblivion. "And not if you're hurting Sora."

Vanitas cackles, hatred festering in his lungs and curdling his stomach. It rings hollowly in the emptiness around them, a noise without substance from a boy without one. Roxas looks at him, mouth thin, Sora's eyes in size and color but the cold, watchful light in them something different, something all his own. Warped mirror images of their doubles, the both of them. "Oh, he'll hurt, alright," Vanitas says wickedly. "Trust me on that. If not by me then Xehanort and there's a lot of him running around these days. You're only delaying the inevitable."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Roxas says grimly, and then blurs, lashing out with Oathkeeper, a promise in words and action. Vanitas brings up Void Gear with a grunt, pushing Roxas back, teleporting out of the way before Oblivion can clip him in the chin.

Fighting Roxas is exhilarating in the same way that Ventus and Sora is, the thrill of pursuit, the knowledge that at last the end is in sight, that revenge and absolution are finally, finally within his reach. He's so close, closer than he's been in over a decade, and yet Vanitas finds himself lingering back after a flurry of magic and movement, looking at this patchwork soul with his and Ventus' face.

"You know for someone who used to bitch and moan so much about being his own person you seem awfully content to rot away in Sora's heart," Vanitas taunts. "Where'd that fire go, huh? It's pathetic. Don't you want your own life? A body? Don't you want revenge?"

Roxas' wary look turns pitying and it boils Vanitas' blood, makes him grit his teeth. Roxas' head shakes, the curve of his mouth and the look in his eyes incongruously soft in the heartbeat before hardness slots back into place, and Vanitas wants to punch that face until it caves in, wants to scrabble at it with his nails until blood makes a home under them and he can peel it off and wear it himself.

"You told Sora his heart was a prison. You were wrong," Roxas says, voice cold. "I trust Sora. I know he'll find a way to save everyone. Until I get a body again this is the only place I want to be. I'll keep his heart safe."

Vanitas can't fathom it. Doesn't want to. He doesn't trust Ventus to do anything except resist or try to destroy him. Vanitas doesn't belong anywhere. Not even with Ventus. There's a black hole nestled behind his ribs, an endless yawning void that hate and bitterness can never fill.

Roxas steps forward, the stained glass mural lighting up under their feet, and when Vanitas' done blinking the light from his eyes he sees the image has changed to one of Roxas and Sora, twined together gently in repose.

"And when he's not strong enough," Roxas says, the light of it still glowing faintly in his eyes, "I'll be there to make up the difference."

He and Roxas are not the same. They never were and it seems so stupidly obvious now that they never could be. He and Roxas may have been shadows of brighter hearts, consigned to oblivion, but it's clear which of them was never meant for the light. That suits Vanitas fine. He'll be whole, one way or the other, even if a voice inside him gone thin and reedy wonders if there's any point, wonders if no matter what he does there will still be a part of him left aching and empty.

"How cute," Vanitas snarls, uncoiling himself to strike at Roxas hard and fast, and there they clash, two boys who were never supposed to exist, deep in the depths of a heart much brighter than they were or ever could be.

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact: this gdoc was titled 'self indulgent heart fuckery'
> 
> i don't even know except i would die for roxas+vanitas interaction okay and also i was having a lot of feelings about data roxas in re coded saying 'there's a place i'd like to be' about sora's heart
> 
> comments are love and life


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